--- description: Find out why Li Qiang is one of the 100 most influential people of 2024. title: Li Qiang: The 100 Most Influential People of 2024 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88f5e149db32e943/698a55980116829cb5985ac1/time-100-2024-li-qiang.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 17, 2024 # Li Qiang by Charlie Campbell  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, and Chinese Premier Li Qiang, brief the media following government consultations of the both countries at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 20, 2023\. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, and Chinese Premier Li Qiang, brief the media following government consultations of the both countries at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, June 20, 2023\. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)Markus Schreiber—AP Do not utter Li Qiang’s name in the city where it was made. In Shanghai, where Li served as Chinese Communist Party secretary from 2017 until 2022, brutal COVID-19 lockdown measures left millions traumatized, shredding his hard-earned reputation as progressive and pro-business. One man was impressed, however: President Xi Jinping, who last March rewarded Li’s unswerving loyalty by promoting him to Premier and China’s second-in-command. While Xi has consolidated more executive power than any other Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, the gritty task of policy implementation now falls to Li—the COO to Xi’s formidable CEO. Born in rural Zhejiang province in 1959, Li spent his youth working in an irrigation-pump station and a tool factory. Today, his job is fixing China’s $17.52 trillion economy within the strict ideological balustrades set by Xi. It’s quite the inbox: China is [battling](https://time.com/6961986/china-challenged-economy-analysis-ray-dalio/ "undefined") deflation, record youth unemployment, plummeting investment, local-government debt equivalent to 76% of GDP, a festering real estate crisis, and a stock market that has lost $5 trillion in value. Fixing this will require tough choices—something Shanghai knows Li won’t shy away from. “The Chinese people,” he said in March, “have the courage, wisdom, to overcome any difficulties or obstacles.” _Campbell is a TIME correspondent_ _Order your copy of the 2024 TIME100 issue_ [_here_](https://magazineshop.us/TIME%5F100 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6965011/li-qiang/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6965011/li-qiang/"},"headline":"Li Qiang","datePublished":"2024-04-17T11:08:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:29:29.587Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6965011/li-qiang/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","2024TIME100","T100Leaders2024"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88f5e149db32e943/698a55980116829cb5985ac1/time-100-2024-li-qiang.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt88f5e149db32e943/698a55980116829cb5985ac1/time-100-2024-li-qiang.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6965011/li-qiang/","name":"Li Qiang"}}]}] ```